A few days ago, a Chinese leaker mentioned that NVIDIA might be preparing a new GeForce lineup based on their Pascal core. Based on the information provided, 3DCenter has posted a speculative specs sheet of what this lineup could like. Coming in 2017, prior to Volta, we can see a range of new cards for consumers.

Note:The information in this article is based on pure speculation. There’s no confirmation about the mentioned products for any upcoming GeForce cards. Hence, the article should be treated as a rumor till NVIDIA officially confirms any next-gen products.

NVIDIA Pascal Refresh “GeForce 20” Series Speculation – An Early Look at What NVIDIA’s 2017 Graphics Lineup May Look Like

NVIDIA introduced Pascal to consumers in Q2 2016. The lineup featured two cards, the GTX 1080 and GTX 1070. Both cards provided a big leap in performance and efficiency over their predecessors. This meant that users can enjoy faster gaming performance at lower price and power consumption. For comparison, the GTX 1080 offered performance better compared to Titan X ($999 US) at $699 US. The GTX 1070 offered performance better than the GTX 980 Ti ($649 US), priced at $379 US.

Pascal has just started launching down the budget and entry level markets. The recent GTX 1060 cards and upcoming GTX 1050 cards will make Pascal come to a more affordable range, in terms of price. The Titan X (Pascal) serves the enthusiast sector with its very impressive specifications but a high price of $1200 US. It is currently the fastest card available to gamers and will remain so until NVIDIA launches a better product or AMD introduces a competitor in the form of Vega with HBM2.

So effortlessly, just like that, Jen-Hsun announced the GTX 1080.

There’s another graphics card expected in 2017, this one is rumored to be known as GTX 1080 Ti. Now we don’t have very concrete details about this product at the moment but it is expected to feature a lower price point than Titan X (Pascal) and will feature around the same performance of the flagship Titan card. One major feature about this card is that it will be open to custom models. This would allow AIBs to experiment with their own custom coolers and PCB solutions for better cooling and overclocking capabilities.

NVIDIA GeForce 10 Pascal Family

Graphics Card Name

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 2 GB

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 3 GB

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 3 GB

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 5 GB

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 6 GB

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 Ti

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080

NVIDIA Titan X

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti

NVIDIA Titan Xp

Graphics Core

GP107

GP107

GP107

GP106 / GP104

GP106

GP106 / GP104

GP104

GP104

GP104

GP102

GP102

GP102

Process Node

14nm FinFET

14nm FinFET

14nm FinFET

16nm FinFET

16nm FinFET

16nm FinFET

16nm FinFET

16nm FinFET

16nm FinFET

16nm FinFET

16nm FinFET

16nm FinFET

Die Size

132mm2

132mm2

132mm2

200mm2

200mm2

200mm2

314mm2

314mm2

314mm2

471mm2

471mm2

471mm2

Transistors

3.3 Billion

3.3 Billion

3.3 Billion

4.4 Billion

4.4 Billion

4.4 Billion

7.2 Billion

7.2 Billion

7.2 Billion

12 Billion

12 Billion

12 Billion

CUDA Cores

640 CUDA Cores

768 CUDA Cores

768 CUDA Cores

1152 CUDA Cores

1280 CUDA Cores

1280 CUDA Cores

1920 CUDA Cores

2432 CUDA Cores

2560 CUDA Cores

3584 CUDA Cores

3584 CUDA Cores

3840 CUDA Cores

Base Clock

1354 MHz

1392 MHz

1290 MHz

1506 MHz

1506 MHz

1506 MHz

1506 MHz

1607 MHz

1607 MHz

1417 MHz

1480 MHz

1480 MHz

Boost Clock

1455 MHz

1518 MHz

1392 MHz

1708 MHz

1708 MHz

1708 MHz

1683 MHz

1683 MHz

1733 MHz

1530 MHz

1583 MHz

1582

FP32 Compute

1.8 TFLOPs

2,3 TFLOPs

2.1 TFLOPs

4.0 TFLOPs

4.4 TFLOPs

4.4 TFLOPs

6.5 TFLOPs

8.1 TFLOPs

9.0 TFLOPs

11 TFLOPs

11.5 TFLOPs

12.5 TFLOPs

VRAM

2 GB GDDR5

3 GB GDDR5

4 GB GDDR5

3 GB GDDR5

6 GB GDDR5

6 GB GDDR5/X

8 GB GDDR5/X

8 GB GDDR5

8 GB GDDR5X

12 GB GDDR5X

11 GB GDDR5X

12 GB GDDR5X

Memory Speed

7 Gbps

7 Gbps

7 Gbps

8 Gbps

8 Gbps

9 Gbps / 10 Gbps

8 Gbps

8 Gbps

11 Gbps

10 Gbps

11 Gbps

11.4 Gbps

Memory Bandwidth

112 GB/s

84 GB/s

112 GB/s

192 GB/s

160 GB/s

224 GB/s / 240 GB/s

256 GB/s

256 GB/s

352 GB/s

480 GB/s

484 GB/s

547 GB/s

Bus Interface

128-bit bus

96-bit bus

128-bit bus

192-bit bus

160-bit bus

192-bit bus

256-bit bus

256-bit bus

256-bit bus

384-bit bus

352-bit bus

384-bit bus

Power Connector

None

None

None

Single 6-Pin Power

Single 6-Pin Power

Single 6-Pin Power

Single 8-Pin Power

Single 8-Pin Power

Single 8-Pin Power

8+6 Pin Power

8+6 Pin Power

8+6 Pin Power

TDP

75W

75W

75W

120W

120W

120W

150W

180W

180W

250W

250W

250W

Display Outputs

1x Display Port 1.4
1x HDMI 2.0b
1x DVI

1x Display Port 1.4
1x HDMI 2.0b
1x DVI

1x Display Port 1.4
1x HDMI 2.0b
1x DVI

3x Display Port 1.4
1x HDMI 2.0b
1x DVI

3x Display Port 1.4
1x HDMI 2.0b
1x DVI

3x Display Port 1.4
1x HDMI 2.0b
1x DVI

3x Display Port 1.4
1x HDMI 2.0b
1x DVI

3x Display Port 1.4
1x HDMI 2.0b
1x DVI

3x Display Port 1.4
1x HDMI 2.0b
1x DVI

3x Display Port 1.4
1x HDMI 2.0b
1x DVI

3x Display Port 1.4
1x HDMI 2.0b

3x Display Port 1.4
1x HDMI 2.0b

Launch Date

October 2016

May 2018

October 2016

September 2016

August 2018

July 2016

June 2016

October 2017

May 2016

August 2016

March 2017

April 2017

Launch Price

$109 US

$119 US-$129 US

$139 US

$199 US

TBD

$249 US

$349 US

$449 US

$499 US

$1200 US

$699 US

$1200 US

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti To Be Part of Pascal Refresh?

As per 3DCenter, NVIDIA could skip the GTX 1080 Ti naming and move directly to GTX 2080 Ti branding on the new card. Now we clearly don’t know if NVIDIA would use the GeForce 11 series branding or GeForce 20 series branding for their new cards but the latter seems better from a marketing perspective. Based on this, the new cards will be marketed as GeForce GTX 20** (Ti/SE).

Before moving onward, I want to make it clear that most of this information is speculation. Neither of this information is confirmed and just provides representation of what the upcoming line of Pascal cards may look like. One thing is certain at this point that all cores except the GP102 are available in their full configuration in the GeForce family. The full GP104 die is featured on the GTX 1080. The full GP106 die is featured on the GTX 1060 and the full GP107 die will make its way to the GTX 1050 Ti.

So this only leaves two GPU which have room for expansion when it comes to SKUs. The GP102 and GP100. GP100 isn’t coming to consumers since it is designed for HPC and AI applications. GP102 on the other hand has been available on the consumer front for some time now. It is part of both Quadro and GeForce family. The Quadro variant features the full die configuration while the GeForce variant is based on a cut down version. So we can see a couple of GP102 variants coming for consumers soon. So without further a do, let’s look at the speculated cards as reported by 3DCenter.

NVIDIA GP102 – GeForce GTX Titan Black V2 and GeForce GTX 2080 Ti

The first two cards mentioned by the source are GP102 based variants. NVIDIA is expected to launch their full GP102 in the consumer market at some point and that is believed to be a Titan variant. NVIDIA’s Maxwell saw the release of the full GM 200 die on the Titan X and with Pascal, that could be a repeat. The card would be a new revision of the GTX Titan Black, V2 as I would like to call it. It would feature 3840 CUDA Cores clocked at around 1600 MHz, up to 24 GB of GDDR5X memory clocked at 12 GB/s along a 384-bit bus interface. That’s a total of 576 GB/s bandwidth without the use of HBM. Aside from these, it would have pricing of $1200 US, same as current Titan but with 15% additional performance.

The second card in the GP102 stack would be the GTX 2080 Ti or GTX 1080 Ti as we currently know it. This card is expected to feature 3384 CUDA cores clocked at around 1700 MHz and 12 GB of GDDR5X memory clocking in at 2500 MHz (10 GB/s). This would achieve the same theoretical bandwidth as current Titan X (Pascal). The card is expected to be priced at $799 US.

WCCF’s Take on the GP102 Pascal Refresh Cards:

NVIDIA has historically offered the best version of their big consumer die on a Titan card. We can look back at the original Titan, Titan Black, Titan X and see that these cards are their most expensive yet most beefiest prosumer solutions. The Ti variants have always been the main attraction for gamers, and that should be the case once again when NVIDIA intros the GP102 based card. This new offering will feature cut down specs but the availability of custom models and faster clocks will lower the performance gap between a full fledged Titan card and the Ti variants.

As for branding, that is up for debate. Whether NVIDIA will continue with GeForce 10 or move to the next number remains to be seen. As of now, rumors point to the GTX 1080 Ti naming scheme but marketing division can decide to change it as done with previous series (GeForce 700 Kepler-Refresh). You can expect the Ti variant in early 2017 followed by the larger Titan release a few months later.

NVIDIA GP104 – GeForce GTX 2080 and GeForce GTX 2070

Next up, we have two more GP104 variants. The GeForce GTX 2080 is said to replace the GTX 1080 with the same core config but faster clocks. We talked about TSMC improving their 16nm process which will guarantee faster clock speeds and better stability on Pascal cores. The GTX 2080 can feature clock speeds up to 2000 MHz for core and 12 GHz for GDDR5X memory. Pricing is said to be around $499 US due to ease of manufacturing and better yields of GP104 while performance would be boosted by 15%.

The GeForce GTX 2070 is said to get a core revision over the GTX 1070. We have seen NVIDIA offering better core configs on their mobility version of the GTX 1070 core that has 2048 cores. The GTX 2070 could go the same route along with faster clocks of 1700 MHz and GDDR5X memory clocked at 10 GHz. This card would deliver a 20% performance boost over GTX 1070 while being priced at $349 US.

WCCF’s Take on the GP104 Pascal Refresh Cards:

A GP104 refresh is least likely to happen but there’s no reason to believe it won’t happen at all. The GTX 2080 sounds like a small boost over the GTX 1080 but the pricing can attract some new users to the GeForce side. The GTX 2070, if it launches with these specs can be a big win. We can see a large number of GTX 1060 owners or Maxwell users quickly hop over to Pascal if the price and specifications of this product are aligned with what’s being speculated right now.

Still, the GTX 1080 and GTX 1070 are very competitive solutions for the market right now with almost no competition in sight. Vega will have to be very competitive against these NVIDIA GP104 and GP102 parts for them to go the route of a full on Pascal Refresh in 2017. For Volta, we don’t expect it in consumer market until mid of 2018.

NVIDIA GP106 – GeForce GTX 2060 Ti and GeForce GTX 2060

The GP106 refresh will come in the form of GTX 2060 Ti and GTX 2060. These cards will replace the GTX 1060 6 GB and GTX 1060 3 GB models. If these cards are indeed planned for launch, we will see them in 2H of 2017. Specifications for both cards are same as the current ones but expect much higher clock speeds. Both variants will support 6 GB of GDDR5 memory and clock rates north of 1900 MHz. Performance increase would be minimal but pricing would come down by 10 percent.

WCCF’s Take on the GP106 Pascal Refresh Cards:

A Pascal GP106 refresh was mentioned in the earlier leak but we expect them to feature GDDR5X memory instead of GDDR5. Also, these parts will be placed against Vega 11, which will be the smaller of the two Vega cores. Another route NVIDIA can take is switch over to GP104 with the next GTX 2060 cards. A cut down variant that provides around 1664 or 1792 cores can offer decent performance with around 10% deficit over the GTX 1070.

NVIDIA GP107 – GeForce GTX 2050

Finally, we have the GP107 Refresh which is known as the GTX 2050. This card is said to feature same configuration as the GTX 1050 Ti with 768 CUDA cores but higher clocks of 1700 MHz and 8 GHz memory. Pricing should be around $150 US.

WCCF’s Take on the GP107 Pascal Refresh Cards:

The specifications for this card seem out of place. The GTX 1050 Ti is expected to boost around 1392 MHz while the GTX 2050 is said to clock around 1700 MHz. I don’t expect we can see such a big clock difference from a core based on the same process node with little improvements. Of course, I don’t know for sure but the other specifications might be true that is if this card ever launches.

This brings us to the end of the Pascal Refresh discussion. As pointed above, the entire article is purely based on speculation. We will be looking at new Pascal based launches in 2017 since Volta is expected in mid of 2018. That is at least for the consumer side. But this doesn’t mean that NVIDIA may go to a full line refresh. I think it’s best we wait it out till CES 2017 where NVIDIA is expected to announce new products. 2017 would also see the launch of AMD’s Vega consumers GPUs that could trigger NVIDIA to launch a new product line based on improved Pascal architecture. Do let us know in the comments below what you think about the speculated Pascal Refresh lineup.

NVIDIA GeForce 20 Series Pascal Refresh (Rumored) Lineup:

Graphics Card Name

GPU Core

CUDA Cores

Clock Speed (Boost)

Memory Bus

Memory Type

Memory Clock

Expected Price

GeForce GTX Titan Black V2

GP102 Pascal Refresh

3840 CCs

~1600 MHz

384-bit bus interface

GDDR5X

12 GHz

$1200 US

GeForce GTX 2080 Ti

GP102 Pascal Refresh

3384 CCs

~1700 MHz

384-bit bus interface

GDDR5X

10 GHz

$799 US

GeForce GTX 2080

GP104 Pascal Refresh

2560 CCs

~2000 MHz

256-bit bus interface

GDDR5X

12 GHz

$499 US

GeForce GTX 2070

GP104 Pascal Refresh

2048 CCs

~1800 MHz

256-bit bus interface

GDDR5X

10 GHz

$349 US

GeForce GTX 2060 Ti

GP106 Pascal Refresh

1280 CCs

~2100 MHz

192-bit bus interface

GDDR5/GDDR5X

8-10 GHz

$229 US

GeForce GTX 2060

GP106 Pascal Refresh

1024 CCs

~1900 MHz

192-bit bus interface

GDDR5/GDDR5X

8-10 GHz

$179 US

GeForce GTX 2050

GP107 Pascal Refresh

768 CCs

~1700 MHz

128-bit bus interface

GDDR5

8 GHz

$139 US

In the upcoming Pascal Refresh, which card would you be more interested in?